Aristophanes

Aristophanes (c. 448-385 bc), Athenian playwright, considered one of the greatest writers of comedy in literary history. His plays have been produced through the centuries and their wit, comic invention, and poetic language have ensured their lasting popularity.

Aristophanes, the son of one Philippos, is believed to have been born in the deme, or township, of Cydathenaeum, in Athens. He was, presumably, well educated and may have had property on the island of Aegina. He in turn had three sons, Philippos, Araros, and Nikostratos, all of whom were comic poets.

Aristophanes was noted for his conservatism. He favoured aristocratic rather than democratic rule and established philosophical and theological ideas rather than the new ideas of the Sophists. His opposition to novelty and reform was more emotional than intellectual and he tended not to distinguish between progressive and retrogressive proposals. Aristophanes wrote more than 40 plays, of which 11 survive. His first three plays were produced under pseudonyms. One of these was The Acharnians (425 bc), a plea for ending the war with Sparta. The Knights (424 bc), the first of the plays of Aristophanes to be presented under his own name, is a devastating satire about the Athenian politician and military leader Cleon, champion of the democratic forces and leader of the war party. The Clouds (423 bc) is a satire on the Greek philosopher Socrates, whose penetrating analysis of established values Aristophanes considered inimical to the interests of the state. In The Wasps (422 bc) Aristophanes satirized the courts of justice of the day, and in The Peace (421 bc) he again argued for an end to war between Athens and Sparta. The Birds (414 bc) ridicules the Athenian fondness for litigation. Lysistrata (411 bc), another satire on war in which women strike for peace by practising celibacy, is his most famous work. Thesmorphoriazusae (411 bc) and The Frogs (405 bc) include attacks on Euripides. Ecclesiazusae (393 bc) is a satire on the idea of communal ownership of property, and Plutus (388 bc) reduced to absurdity the concept of redistribution of wealth in Athens. These works, basically fantasies, were written in a form less strict than that of contemporary tragedy and included dialogue scenes, long choral harangues, lyric passages, and a great deal of music and dance.

The plays of Aristophanes exerted considerable influence on English satire, notably that of Ben Jonson in the 17th century and Henry Fielding in the 18th century.